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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

PCA launches probe into fatal Beetham shooting

by

37 days ago
20250120

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the death of a moth­er of two who was killed in a po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing in Beetham Gar­dens on Sat­ur­day evening. 

PCA Di­rec­tor David West an­nounced the probe yes­ter­day as rel­a­tives and friends of 36-year-old Shari­da Ali called for jus­tice for her and her two daugh­ters ages 14 and nine. 

 Ali, a jan­i­tor at Trinci­ty Mall, and her sis­ter Ayesha went to vis­it a long-time friend and co-work­er at Nine­teenth Street, Beetham Gar­dens, af­ter fin­ish­ing work. Around 6 pm, Ali had just fin­ished hav­ing a meal with her friend and her fam­i­ly when she went to the kitchen for ice to add to her drink. 

A bul­let en­tered through the kitchen win­dow and struck Ali in her head. Her sis­ter rushed to her as­sis­tance but she died in­stant­ly. 

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, the shoot­ing oc­curred as po­lice of­fi­cers were at­tempt­ing to ap­pre­hend a group of men, who had re­port­ed­ly stolen a Nis­san Note short­ly be­fore. 

The 71-year-old own­er of the ve­hi­cle was ply­ing his car for hire in Bon Air Gar­dens, Arou­ca when he was at­tacked by two men who were pre­tend­ing to be pas­sen­gers. 

The men, who were armed with a knife, threat­ened the dri­ver be­fore push­ing him out of the ve­hi­cle and dri­ving away. 

Po­lice of­fi­cers re­spond­ing to the rob­bery re­port chased af­ter the ve­hi­cle, which was even­tu­al­ly dri­ven west along the shoul­der of the east­bound lane of the Beetham High­way. Footage of the high-speed chase be­fore the shoot­ing, cap­tured by pass­ing mo­torists, was post­ed on so­cial me­dia. 

The ve­hi­cle re­port­ed­ly crashed near the house where Ali was lim­ing. The sus­pects aban­doned the ve­hi­cle and ran to­wards the Pri­or­i­ty Bus Route (PBR). 

Po­lice claimed one of the men drew a firearm and shot at the of­fi­cers, who re­turned fire. The sus­pects man­aged to es­cape and had not been ap­pre­hend­ed up till late yes­ter­day.

In a press re­lease, West not­ed that the PCA had re­ceived pre­lim­i­nary re­ports about the shoot­ing. 

“The PCA has be­gun its in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the in­ci­dent in which a civil­ian, Ms Shari­da Ali, was killed dur­ing an ex­change of gun­fire be­tween sus­pects and the po­lice,” he said. 

“We can­not say at this stage whose bul­let killed Ms Ali,” he added, as he not­ed that the PCA’s in­ves­ti­ga­tors will await the au­top­sy re­sults to make a de­ter­mi­na­tion. 

He al­so ex­pressed hope that there is video footage of the in­ci­dent that could be re­viewed. 

“We are hop­ing that the po­lice of­fi­cers in­volved were wear­ing body-worn cam­eras so the PCA would be able to ac­quire video footage of the in­ci­dent,” he said. 

West al­so called on wit­ness­es to come for­ward to as­sist in the probe. 

When a news team from Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the scene of the shoot­ing, eye­wit­ness­es de­nied claims of a shoot-out be­tween the sus­pects and the po­lice. 

“The po­lice were far away from the car. When they pulled up there the men was al­ready gone. It had no­body and they just jump out shoot­ing like mad peo­ple just to prove a point,” a woman said. 

She al­so claimed that one of the of­fi­cers recog­nised that one of the bul­lets he dis­charged hit Ali. 

“He start to scratch he head like he go­ing crazy,” she said. 

She claimed he was be­rat­ed by his col­leagues, who then turned their at­ten­tion to her and oth­er res­i­dents, who were left fren­zied by what tran­spired.  

“They start to cuss every­body in the house and threat­ened to shoot them,” she said. 

“They pick she up, drag her out­side and fling she in the van like a crim­i­nal. Every­one was bawl­ing and scream­ing,” she said. 

She said res­i­dents are still trau­ma­tised.  

“It was a shock­ing thing. Peo­ple fraid to sleep in their own house. They fright­ened,” she said. 

An­oth­er res­i­dent sug­gest­ed that the of­fi­cers were neg­li­gent in open­ing fire in the heav­i­ly pop­u­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ty.  

“They can’t be shoot­ing wild so when they know chil­dren in the road. Any­one could have get it,” he said. 

He al­so main­tained that he did not see the sus­pects car­ry­ing a gun while seek­ing to evade the of­fi­cers. 

“It was on­ly the po­lice do­ing the shoot­ing as far as I see,” he said. 

Dur­ing a vis­it to Ali’s fam­i­ly home lo­cat­ed along the PBR in St Joseph, her sis­ter Ayesha found it dif­fi­cult to re­count what she had wit­nessed hours be­fore. 

She de­scribed her sis­ter as nice and lov­ing. 

“She like to eat. She was cook­ing and now done eat when it hap­pen. She al­ways liked to eat,” she said. 

She ex­pressed anger and dis­ap­point­ment at how she and res­i­dents were treat­ed by the po­lice in the af­ter­math of the shoot­ing. 

“When I was help­ing car­ry out my sis­ter’s body, two of the of­fi­cers slapped away my hands. They just take my sis­ter and pelt she in a van,” she said. 

She said her nieces, who were now be­ing tak­en care of by their fa­ther, are still com­ing to terms with their moth­er’s death. 

“The small one say­ing that she mum­my in the hos­pi­tal and com­ing back now,” she said, as she fought un­suc­cess­ful­ly to re­main sto­ic. 

Ali’s younger sis­ter, Reena Kissoo, said the cal­lous treat­ment by the po­lice con­tin­ued when they went to the hos­pi­tal to check up on her. 

“No­body had spo­ken to me and tell me any­thing and they knew I was a rel­a­tive,” Kissoon said. 

Kissoon said she and her rel­a­tives are de­mand­ing jus­tice for Ali’s death. 

“She did not de­serve to die over po­lice wild gun­shots. We not leav­ing this so. I would fight to the last for jus­tice for my sis­ter. She have two chil­dren. We need jus­tice for her chil­dren, not for us,” Kissoon said, not­ing that her sis­ter was the bread­win­ner in her home. 


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